Against the background of heightened safety consciousness in sporting activities in particular, people are increasingly being advised to wear a helmet in order to at least reduce, if not eliminate, the consequences of a fall or impact.
This is true in particular in the field of mountain climbing and skiing but also for cycling and more especially mountain biking and even road cycling.
One of the main requirements that users of these helmets demand is the possibility of combining a certain degree of mechanical strength with reduced overall dimensions and, above all, reduced weight.
Protective helmets comprising a rigid or semi-rigid external shell associated with a separate compressively deformable element fitted inside the shell and intended to absorb shocks caused by possible falls have been proposed in order to meet this demand. Such a shock absorbing element is also referred to as a shock absorbing liner.
Such a helmet is described, for example, in document FR 2 865 356. The helmet that is the subject of this document consists of a plurality of external rigid flaps linked to each other by means of connecting elements made of a flexible material that ensures connection of the flaps and define a rear so-called occipital flap and a plurality of lateral transversal flaps, the totality of these flaps therefore defining the shell that encloses the internal shock absorbing liner.
Although the helmet described is satisfactory in terms of its primary objectives, namely protection and flexibility, it nevertheless has the drawback of being relatively bulky because of the space that it takes up.
Given the fact that such a helmet is not worn at all times by the user, for example when taking a break, when walking the approach to a mountain, during transfers using ski lifts or, in the case of a cyclist, when the latter is on the move, especially in a town, and parks his or her bike etc., it is desirable to produce a helmet that has compact overall dimensions when it is not in use.
To achieve this, document FR 2 781 650, for example, proposes a folding protective helmet, the shell of which consists of individual articulated segments joined together on their front and rear end, thus making it possible to deploy or fold said shell at will, depending whether or not the helmet is in use.
Nevertheless, this protective helmet does not use an internal shock absorbing liner but an inflatable structure that cannot effectively fulfil a shock absorbing function and the protection actually provided by such a helmet is poor and unsatisfactory to users in any case.
The present invention therefore relates to a protective helmet of the type in question which ensures both effective protection by using a rigid or semi-rigid shell and a shock absorbing internal liner but nevertheless makes it possible to fold or reduce the size of the helmet, notwithstanding the presence of said shock absorbing element.